Prostate cancer, birth size and carotenoids

[Guest guest]

Hi All,

The below represent two not pdf-available reports

on our risk for prostate cancer for males.

One factor we cannot control and another that we

can control are, for the first, our size and length at

birth, suggesting that greater growth during pregnancy

predispose an increased risk of the common male

cause of death.

For the second, our diets matter much. Carotenoids

are good for preventing prostate cancer death, but, it

seems, not the disease in situ. It is the metastatic

disease that kills its victims.

They gave away free pumpkins after Halloween, and

our freezer was stuffed. I would have thought maybe

carrots or greens other than spinach would have

presented greater protection.

Int J Cancer. 2004 Oct 28;113(6):1002-1004 [Epub ahead of print]

Birth size and subsequent risk for prostate cancer: A prospective

population-based study in Norway.

Nilsen TI, Romundstad PR, Troisi R, Vatten LJ.

... We prospectively examined ... 19,681 singleton males born

between 1920 and 1958 ... 159 cases of prostate cancer were diagnosed

during

follow-up; 33 had metastases at diagnosis. Overall, there was little

evidence

for any association between birth size and prostate cancer risk;

however, there

was a positive association for birth size and metastatic disease. Men

in the

highest quartile of birth length (>/=53 cm) had a relative risk of

2.5

(95% CI

1.0-6.3) compared to men in the lowest quartile (<51 cm). Further,

men

in the

highest quartile of both birth weight and birth length had a relative

risk of

3.8 (95% CI 1.2-12.0) for metastatic prostate cancer compared to men

in

the

lowest category of both factors. These results support the hypothesis

that

factors that determine intrauterine growth could be important for

aggressive

forms of prostate cancer in adulthood.

PMID: 15514943 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]

Int J Cancer. 2004 Oct 28;113(6):1010-1014 [Epub ahead of print]

Do dietary lycopene and other carotenoids protect against prostate

cancer?

... a case-control study was conducted

in Hangzhou, southeast China during 2001-2002. The cases were 130

incident

patients with histologically confirmed adenocarcinoma of the

prostate.

The

controls were 274 hospital inpatients without prostate cancer or any

other

malignant diseases. ... food frequency questionnaire.

.... adjusting for age, locality, education,

income, body mass index, marital status, number of children, family

history of

prostate cancer, tea drinking, total fat and caloric intake. ...

Intake

of tomatoes,

pumpkin, spinach, watermelon and citrus fruits were also inversely

associated

with the prostate cancer risk. The adjusted odds ratios for the

highest

versus

the lowest quartiles of intake were 0.18 (95% CI: 0.08-0.41) for

lycopene, 0.43

(95% CI: 0.21-0.85) for alpha-carotene, 0.34 (95% CI: 0.17-0.69) for

beta-carotene, 0.15 (95% CI: 0.06-0.34) for beta-cryptoxanthin and

0.02

(95% CI:

0.01-0.10) for lutein and zeaxanthin. The corresponding dose-response

relationships were also significant, suggesting that vegetables and

fruits rich

in lycopene and other carotenoids may be protective against prostate

cancer.

PMID: 15514967 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]

Cheers, Alan Pater